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Monday, October 13, 2014

Cook Once, Eat Twice

I am a Food Network junkie. I love to watch cooking shows and get ideas. However, out here in the real world I don't ever have time to make a meal that will take 2 hours to prep and 2 more hours to cook. I have five kids and normally they are all in my kitchen begging to eat, help, complain, or stand right where I need to be. That's why I strive to cook once and eat twice. Here's how I achieve that.

1. Buy whole chickens and cook at least two at a time. I never only cook one chicken at a time! I cook two and we eat one and then I take all of the meat off of the bones. I make either chicken salad, a casserole, soup, or chicken fried rice with the meat. I then make bone broth with the bones and after it is cooled I put the broth in freezer bags and freeze them.

2. Have a Chopping Party. Chop up all of your produce when you get home. I have said this a lot but this will save you a lot of time and headache later on. I have started letting my kids join me in chopping up produce and putting it in containers in the fridge.

3. Make a roast or stew once a week. On Sunday I make a roast in the crock-pot. This provides us with leftovers for either lunches or another dinner.

4. Cook your grains for the week. I make rice by the package instead of when we need it. Then, I freeze our rice in serving sizes. You can quickly thaw rice by running warm water over it. This is easy to make a quick dinner with stir fry veggies with and chicken you cooked up or chicken and rice soup with your broth!

With these easy tips you are saving money and time in the kitchen as well as your waistline!